Your point that fanaticism can be found outside of Conservatism is, of course, correct. Sometimes I make a point of saying so, but it's such an obvious point that sometimes I trust the reader to take it as stipulated. (I'm not criticizing you for mentioning it, Rob, I'm introducing the material for which that balance is a shorthand.)

However, sometimes people take the idea to an extreme that's not helpful, implying an absolute symmetry that differs only in the polarity of the rhetoric. That it's entirely quantitative and not qualitative, in other words. This can be misleading, as has been pointed out in journalism where often the media is satisfied to simply present equal quantities of opposing views and call it "balanced". What they're really doing is running away from the hard work of finding the truth, and hiding behind a numerical fig leaf. I think it can also be demeaning, too. What Conservative would like to be thought of as a Liberal with different rhethoric; or vice-versa?

On the subject of attitude and temperament, I think it's fair to say that while you can find whackjobs on both the Left and Right, they don't go whacky the same way. Where Conservatives lapse into anger and bitterness and hatred, Liberals tend to go hippy-dippy kumbayaa whackjob. While that can be awfully annoying, it doesn't contain an implied threat. It's only natural to interpret anger and hatred directed toward oneself or one's group as threatening, and all too many rabid Conservatives make it clear that only fear of jail time is keeping them from slaughtering those evil Liberals. Way too much extreme RightWing rhetoric sounds like it was adapted from a Goebbels diatribe by changing "Jews" to "Liberals".

Am I being hyperbolic? What's the message clearly conveyed by the book "The 100 People Destroying America"? If you're a patriot, and you believe that there are people intent on destroying America, are you not obligated to take action? And if you're a patriot of the Barry Goldwater school, are there any limits on the action you should take?

Would my point be clearer if, in an alternate universe, there had been a book in the 1930s titled "The 100 Jews Destroying Germany"? The classics never go out of style, and that's classic demagoguery at its most evil.

Here we are focusing on the extremes of the political spectrum. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but I don't want you to take my observations as tarring all Conservatives with a broad brush. Defining the extremes makes it possible to recognize, and appreciate, the center. I do appreciate all the Conservatives who don't answer to the description above.